I thought for sure someone was going to run with this but I haven’t seen anything yet so wanted to throw this out there.

Note: I’m using the common phrase “Free to Play” but we all know these games aren’t really free. Non-subscription based is more accurate but less catchy.

At PAX last weekend we went to MMORPG.com’s “The Future of Online Gaming” panel. Great session, by the way.

One of the questions asked was about the trend towards Free to Play. Turbine’s Craig Alexander was the obvious person to answer the question and he spoke positively about how well DDO Online and LOTRO have been doing since going Free to Play. 38 Studios’ Curt Schilling was also on the panel, sitting right next to Alexander, and he was nodding along and enthusiastically supporting Alexander in sharing the benefits of a Free to Play model.

I wasn’t there as a blogger, just a gamer, so I wasn’t taking notes or anything, and so I can’t provide quotes, but coming out of the show Jeremy (@_JWGoodson) speculated that Schilling’s comments were telling and that they may have tipped us off to 38 Studios’ plans to forgo the subscription model and going straight to a Free to Play model when Copernicus finally launches.

Sheer speculation at this point, but I thought it was interesting enough to share, but too long for tweeting. 🙂